Dashing Whippets Training Plan, February 22 – 28, 2016

This weekly message keeps active members informed of the Dashing Whippets training activities for the next seven days.

Dashing Whippets Training Plan for the Week

This week 9 of a training plan for Boston and New Jersey marathoners, and week 8 of training plans for competitors in the NYC Half or Washington Heights 5K.

Please click on the links below to RSVP if you are planning to come out to one of these training events!

Note: Almost all training paces, such as 5K, 10K, half marathon, should be your estimated pace if you ran the race today — not your goal or PR pace. (Exception: Marathon pace is your goal pace or best guess of your well-trained marathon speed.) You can use the Daniels VDOT calculator to estimate your pace from a recent result.

Monday 2/22: Easy day

Spring marathoners and half marathoners should run 50-70 minutes easy, followed by 5 x 100m strides

Spring marathoners, NYC Half competitors and Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork): 3 repeats of 2 miles at 15K pace, with 3:00 jog recovery between them. Finish with 1-2 miles of easy jogging to cool down.

Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 2 repeats of 2 miles at half marathon pace, with 3:00 jog recovery between them, and finish with a 1-mile cooldown.

Short distance (5K-15K) specialists (with a solid base of speedwork): 3-4 repeats of 1200(10K)400(5K) supersets, which is 1200m at 10K pace immediately followed by 400m at 5K pace, with no rest. Jog 400m between supersets, and finish with 15-20 minutes of easy jogging to cool down.

Spring marathoners and NYC Half competitors: 4-6 repeats of 1600m at 15K pace, with 1:30jogging recovery between them. Finish with a 20-minute cooldown.

Alternative for indoor track specialists (who have done speedwork regularly): 3-4 repeats of 600m at one-mile race pace, with a 400m jog between them. Finish with a generous cooldown.

Runners who are building a base (not much recent speedwork): 3-4 repeats of 1200m at 15K pace, with 400m jogging recovery between them. Finish with a 15-minute cooldown.

Saturday and Sunday, 2/27-28: On one day, do 35-55 minutes of easy running followed by 4 repeats of 100m strides. On the other day, do a long run…

Boston marathoners: 20-22 miles at long run pace

New Jersey marathoners: 2:35-2:50 at long run pace

NYC Half competitors: 2:15 at long run pace

Short distance specialists (5K-15K) with a solid base: 1:30-1:45 at progression pace

Runners who are building a base: 1:15-1:30 at easy or long run pace

Long run pace is 45-60 seconds per mile slower than marathon pace — a little faster than easy pace, but still not challenging. Progression run pace starts at long run pace for the first half — but the second half gradually accelerates to half marathon pace (or marathon pace for marathoners) — and do the last 10 minutes at an easy pace.

Related

Matt co-founder of the Dashing Whippets with Rich since May 2009. Matt has been running since joining his high school cross country team his sophomore year. Since being with the team, Matt has completed 3 marathons with a 2:57:24 PR at the 2013 Boston Marathon and many other races, including a 4:48 mile at the 2015 Fifth Avenue Mile and a 1:18:53 half marathon in the 2014 NYC Half Marathon. Matt lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn with his wife and twin daughters. Read more at Board of Directors